“Oh it’s my pleasure, of course.” Tony smirked as he replied, proceeding to shove the bite of food stuck to the end of his fork into his mouth. His attention was drawn to the tapping of her nail against the table for a moment, the sharpness of it cutting through the soft music playing in the background. Tony always loved setting the mood. Tonight was no different.
Emma Frost wasn’t normally his sort of company. Truthfully, Tony spent a lot of time alone. He would say that it was his choice, of course— that he was better on his own, that it was too much work to keep up with a life that involved much of anyone else. Rhodey teased him about it in one way or another as often as he could manage. They both knew that it was out of concern more than anything, but even his best friend had a difficult time getting the truth from him.
The truth was that he was lonely. It was a sad thing for someone to admit— especially someone who wanted for nothing. Tony Stark had everything: the money, the house, the family name, the brains, the looks. Some would probably call him charming, in the conceited kind of way. But most of the persona he shrouded himself with was just to cover up the vulnerable person he truly was deep down. He had convinced himself it was easier to live a lonely life than to put himself out there to get hurt over and over again.
Even with hiding himself away, wounds were still made. The new ones sat right next to the old ones and found company there, finding a home in the cracks in his armor. There were too many to patch up at this point. But no one needed to know that.
Dying and being reborn had changed that a bit. He was still Tony Stark but there was something else there as well— a strange sense of belonging that he felt oddly protective of. The people brought back under Sinister’s influence all had a common goal and a sense of togetherness that Tony had been searching for his entire life. He thought that he had maybe found it with the Avengers, but he saw now that he had been mistaken. All that mattered now was the common goal.
Emma understood that. She was a part of it all. This wasn’t the first time that Tony had thought about how similar the two of them were, but now he was willing to dig a bit deeper into that truth.
He set his fork down as he swallowed the bite of food, and then mirrored her movements as he sat back in his seat. “Discretion has never been a specialty of mine.” He quipped in response, crossing one leg over the other and perking a brow. “But this is different. I can keep secrets when it matters. And I’m grateful to have been brought into the fold.”
Then Tony leaned forward again, purposefully keeping his eyes glued to Emma as he did. “I suppose all I need to know now is what I can do to help things along. What do you need from me, Ms. Frost?”
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